


Bioremediation

by NixKat



Category: Dorohedoro
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dragons, Gen, Peggy Sue Fic, Time Travel Fix-It, weredragons
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-09
Updated: 2020-10-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:47:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 20,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26371411
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NixKat/pseuds/NixKat
Summary: In a stroke of twisted luck Ton's magic activates for the first time as he lay dying, now he and Natsuki have the chance to go back at a price. Can they stop the deaths of their comrades or will they fail and fall to the appetites of monsters?
Relationships: Cross-Eyes, Ton & Natsuki (Dorohedoro)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	1. What do we say to Death?

-Location: Hole?-

“Uhg...” Consciousness hits Ton like a hammer to the side of his head. Searing pain radiates from his temple to his ear and only increases as he gets up. He groans, “Oww.”

Taking stock of his surroundings, Ton is absolutely certain that he is no longer in the Hole shopping mall basement. There was no sign of the door he opened or the wave of sludge that washed over him. Not even the hallway he’d just been in with the numbered doorways. The place he was in now looked decrepit, like a building long abandoned and left to rot but even more so than the usual state of things in the Hole. The ground was uneven, cracked and broken in places, large slabs that looked like they’d been moved at some point before being dropped. Massive metal pipes, plastic-covered soft grungy tubing, corroded iron girders, walls with struts, and studs visible. It felt like a half-finished construction project left in the rain.

And it reeked.

A familiar kind of raw sewage, wet mud, and rotting corpses kinda smell. The boss’s scent. Strongly emanated from the thick sticky reddish-black liquid dripping from him. It was some kinda sludge, grainy and thick and not unlike the stuff he’d see in the bathtub as a kid after the boss had done his weekly shower. He had an unsettling feeling in the pit of his stomach about this. Using his relatively cleaner undershirt he wiped the muck from his face and set about trying to find his comrades.

“Saji!” He shouted at the top of his lungs. One hand cupping the side of his mouth and the over carrying his now ruined undershirt. “Tetsujo! Ushishimada! Damnit guys where did you go?”

There’s something niggling in the back of his mind like he’s forgotten something very important, something he saw in the dark fluid that washed over him. As he walked he realized that this place is far far larger than it first appeared, starting to look more like an abandoned city, Hole if it were a ghost town. And in places freakishly organic like at some point someone used meat to try and rebuild sections of walls.

He stops and there is a hole in the ground not too far ahead filled with blood-colored bubbling muck. An arm sticks out of the hole and lays limp along the ground. Seeing what is probably a person in trouble he rushes to action.

“Hey! Hold on tight!” He grabs the hand and pulls, bracing himself with his weight on his back leg and not the leg close to the edge of the hole. The pit looks nasty and he doesn’t know if the edge is stable or not. The mud makes a horrible sucking sound as he wrenches the person free. Whoever they are they’re fairly slim with long hair and absolutely covered in gunk.

Using his undershirt he cleans the person’s face and after clearing the layer of grime his heart jolts-- “Natsuki!”

He clutches her close and can’t help but shout, “Hey! Hey! Hey! Wake Up! Natsuki!!”

Then he realizes that she isn’t breathing.

“Shit!” He lowers her back to the ground and tries to pull up those CPR lessons from back in the day. Medicine and fighting were the only things that the boss actually taught them. He inhales as deeply as possible then locks lips with her and forces air into her lungs.

“Natsuki! Don’t die!” He downright orders as he starts with chest compressions. Using his full upper body strength he pushes down directly on her sticky chest and then releases and counts. One... two… ten… thirty… forty-two… sixty-six… one hundred! “I said breathe! Damnit!”

Natsuki complies with wet coughing that forces red slime out of her mouth and nose.

“Thank goodness!” He sighs in relief and cleans more of the gunk off of her. His shirt now irredeemable is left on the ground. As he looks at Natsuki’s naked huddled form turned away from him his mind swarms with questions and the nagging feeling that he’s forgotten something important.

“Hey,” He says to get her attention as she seems to be very distracted about the whole nearly drowning thing. Ton takes off his jacket and drapes it over her shoulders. “Natsuki, how did you get here? Why are you butt naked? And how did you get to Hole?”

She says something. He knows she’s saying something. He’s looking right at her and can plainly see her mouth moving and she’s even gesturing with her hands. She’s saying something but he hears nothing. It feels like there’s water in his ears and something he needs to remember. Whatever had happened to her didn’t change the fact that they were still lost in a strange and possibly dangerous place.

Compared to the other heavy lifting he’d done that day carrying Natsuki was a breeze. Hell, she was even smaller than Dokuga and Ton knew for a fact that he could bench press the other man without breaking a sweat. He picked a direction and kept walking.

And walking.

And walking.

And he is forgetting something important.

A flash of memory passed by so fast that the only thing that registered was the sound of torn flesh. Ton suddenly becomes aware that he has a splitting headache. For some reason, it feels like it’s been hurting for a good minute and he just didn’t notice. Natsuki taps his shoulder and he notices that their surroundings are dimmer and the walls are oozing sludge. An uneasiness settles into his bones and he has her hand him one of the knives from his jacket. He carries it in his mouth just in case danger appears and he keeps walking.

The feeling of danger passes and Ton fills the time and silence with idle chatter. Worry gnaws at his gut as they find no exit or any other people around at all. He knew he’d been walking for damn kilometers by this point. Worry turns to dread when he sees a hole filled with sludge. His protests that it couldn’t be the same hole that he pulled Natsuki out of are killed by the sight of his crumpled and dirty undershirt beside it.

He has remembered the thing he forgot.

The realization of death feels like the floor falling out from under him. He feels the pain in his head and ear and ah… That’s why he couldn’t hear Natsuki. The thing in the sludge tore through his head.

They were nowhere. Alone together in the void and fully dressed. He was so very tired.

“You’ve been here a long time, huh,” Words came slowly as his mind grew foggy. “I… wasn’t able to help you… I’m sorry...”

The darkness closed in.

Rough slender fingers closed around his hand and squeezed.

With a jolt, they are thrown from the abyss. It feels like his body is full of pins and needles as his surroundings come into focus. They were laying in a hallway full of numbered doors in a pool of blood and back powder. What?

“Ok! I haven’t had a trip like that since that time Maki gave me a bad batch of Black Powder.” Natsuki’s voice croaked as she rubbed her temples.

“Natsuki!” Ton shouted and engulfed her into a crushing hug. “Thank the devil! You’re ok!”

She hugs him back just as tight. When he lets go he notices her expression and the fact that he can see right through her to the door behind. Oh.

“Ton...” She says and her smile is tinged with sadness. She pokes him in the chest and he notices that he too is transparent. Weird. Weirder is the faintly glowing blue cord going from her wrist to his on the hand that she’d grabbed not too long ago. “I’m pretty sure we’re dead. Maybe ghosts or something?”

That made sense, given the whole weird ass gunky… limbo? (Limbo? That’s a word he hasn’t thought about in a very long time.) that they were just in. Plus his memories of something taking out a chunk of his skull and slashing up his ear. If the blood on the ground was his then he was extremely dead. But…

“That’s… not possible.” A touch of the past flashed behind his eyelids of a quiet conversation. A heavy hand on his head and flowery incense. A woman’s voice. _That may be what happens, but that’s not remotely fair. And damn the devils for it._ “Sorcerers go to hell when we die. Like immediately. Only humans turn into ghosts.”

Natsuki shrugged and an ‘I don’t know’ sound. “Big bro, all I know that this isn’t hell and that I definitely died.”

“...how did you die Natsuki? Last I heard Doguka sent you on a solo mission. Did something go wrong?”

She stood and turned her back to him. He heard her take in a deep breath then release it. “I was leaving the manor. For some reason... Dokuga insisted that I leave through the back exit. On the way out I ran into the boss. He… licked me. On the mouth. It was weird. Then he told me he wanted me which you know super exciting--”

“Eww! You're like fifteen and he’s almost thirty!”

“Sixteen!”

“Same difference! Still nasty!”

“As I was saying! Super exciting! Butterflies in my stomach and everything. Then he kissed me (btw the boss really needs to brush more often like hot damn) and...” She paused. He could see her hands shaking even while hidden inside of her poofy hoodie. “He used En’s magic. He filled my insides with mushrooms and cut me to pieces with his knives. He was… smiling. Smiling as he killed me.”

She buries her face in her hands and he’s there instantly one arm around her shoulders and another on her head. He makes a soothing sound because his words fail him. He wanted to say that the boss would never because… well, the boss half-raised him and the others. Saved their lives and gave them a reason to live. Sure he was pretty cold and blunt but he… Ton, Saji, Ushishimada, Tetsujo, and Dokuga… they all loved the boss and it was clear that they were loyal. That Natsuki was loyal. Why would the boss…

The one who killed me was a Crosseye! I’m sure of it. Risu’s voice bubbled up from a traitorous part of his mind. As Natsuki turned to cry into his chest he felt the phantom pains of his knives turned against him by Risu’s magic. Powerful rare magic. Yeah… the numbers on Natsuki’s smoke readings were pretty damn good and defense magic? Well that’s really fucking useful, isn’t it? If they’d have met under different circumstances… if she hadn’t been a Crosseye and able to use her magic? Well, neither he nor any of the guys would have hesitated to take her head for the boss. That was the stone-cold truth yet something about it made him nauseous.

Natsuki was a nice person. Hell, from what he heard about Risu before his death the kid was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed too. Actually in it for the cause and not the money. They were killed by the boss. The faces on the thing that killed me had cross-eye marks, his brain supplied. Natsuki and Risu didn’t deserve to die.

“You can let go now,” Natsuki said, pulling away from him. She rubs her eyes and looks very tired. “Alright. So… what next.”

He shrugged. “No idea. Wanna find the others?”

“Why not?”

\------

It doesn’t take them long to find Ushishimada, Tetsujo, and Saji who are now rather loudly looking for Ton. Which was nice.

“Where’d that dumbass go?” Ushishimada was saying when Ton and Natsuki caught up with the rest of the group. Rude. Ton stuck his tongue out at him.

Natsuki waved her hand in front of Saji’s face as he read a sign about where exactly they were. “I don’t think they can see us.”

“Nope. Let’s see if this works,” Ton took in a deep breath, “HEEEEEEEEEEY GUUUUUUUUYS!!!!”

No response. Huh. The guys continued with their conversation and Ton shuddered when Tetsujo walked right through him like he wasn’t even there. Tetsujo stopped and his shoulders tensed and his eye darted around. Oh! Perhaps? Before he could try again his attention was drawn to the horrible wall of ooze pulsating further up the hall. About around where he’d woken up. Very familiar red-black slime.

“Ewww, you see that?” Natsuki said, pointing at it. Ah good, he wasn’t just seeing shit.

“Whooa!” Tetsujo’s hand flew to his sword because apparently he saw that shit too.

“What’s wrong Tetsujo?” Saji did not see it.

“I--I dunno,” Tetsujo was on high alert now. Granted it didn't take much to really set him off. Man carries his sword even to the bath, he’s got issues. Not saying that the rest of them don’t have issues but Dokuga and Tetsujo were the most paranoid people Ton knew. “But just now something...”

The phantom wall of slime vanished the moment Ushishimada’s shout caught their attention. He’d picked up the powder trail and found the door marked with Ton’s blood. Door nineteen.

“Shit! Ton we have to do something!” Natsuki shouts as she reaches out for the guys. Her touch fails to even raise the hair on the backs of their necks as they open the door. Ton’s nerves feel like they’re on fire, his attention locked onto the bloated monster inside of the room and the meaty sucking noises it was making. It wasn’t the only thing he saw. From the blood spatter patterns and bullet holes in the wall it looked like there’d been a gunfight in here recently. Even from this angle Ton could clearly see that it looked like the boss had been partially decapitated, the top of his head flopping a bit as he… ate. The boss was eating something.

“Is that really what the boss looks like now?” Natsuki’s voice was barely audible as the pain in his ear returned. His head throbbed and half of his face felt raw and torn. There was static in one of his legs and it felt like his guts were falling out.

Ah, well that’s that then.

A hollow feeling slithered inside of Ton as he detachedly watched Tetsujo, Saji, and Ushishimada’s excitement at finding the boss turn into unease and confusion and then morph into horror as they discovered what Ton had already figured out. There was something weird about seeing your own corpse. Even weirder to see someone who you genuinely loved just going ham on your carcass like your guts were made of bacon. Something that was almost a laugh escaped Ton’s ghostly lips as the puns caught up with him.

Though looking at the boss, he definitely didn’t get that big by just eating him. Hell, most of Ton’s carcass wasn’t even in him yet. There was a lot of blood everywhere. And there was no way the boss could have gotten to this room on his own and as strong as Dokuga was this was pretty damn far to carry that thing’s weight by himself. And definitely no way that Dokuga would have made such a sloppy attempt at decapitation if he had reason to harm the boss. So a firefight in which someone hurt the boss and the boss ate the resulting bodies. As well as Ton because... he’d shown up? The boss had still been hungry and he’d shown up and as far as the boss had been concerned Ton was food.

The monster that was the boss pulled Ton’s torso closer and seemed to hesitate for a moment before digging its claws into the flesh of his chest and tearing it open to get access to the organs inside. Ton felt that. Pain seared through his ghostly body and his ribs snapped and popped in time with his real ones as the boss tore out his ribcage.

Saji was the first to act. His voice was shaky, begging, and on the verge of screaming as he tried to pull Ton’s remains away from the boss. “S...Stop. Stop it already! That’s your friend! Have you forgotten that?!”

Was the boss ever actually their friend? Part of his heart that would always remember being beaned in the face with a burger, the one and only time the boss shared food that was meant for him. The fun trips to fancy restaurants. Fighting as a team. But… really it was more the boss tolerated them while they loved him unconditionally. Well sort of. The boss… Kai… saved their lives when they were kids. Gave them a reason to keep on living in these shithole worlds. Not the reason they told themselves or the recruits but reason enough. To be useful. To feel protected. To be provided for and free from want. That’s probably as close to loved as a bunch of losers like them could get from someone (something, because the boss was never quite like a proper person now, was he?) that powerful. They used the fear of Kai to use others. And the boss used them. And threw them away once they were no longer useful to him. Simple.

And yet it made the traitorous part of Ton’s heartburn with rage.

 _They’d been loyal!_ Saji deserved better than to be on the verge of tears playing a pathetic game of tug of war with one of his best friend’s rib cage while begging the man who was practically their father to remember that comrades aren’t snacks. _They’d been kind!_ Ushishimada should have been at home, helping Ton cook up a hot breakfast for their brothers in arms instead of sinking to the floor in grief. _They tried to make things better!_ He didn’t want to see Tetsujo vomit from stress and feel the need to draw his sword against someone he trusted, it was like watching something get irreversibly broken.

**_THEY DESERVED BETTER!_ **

Like a match in a methane mine heat burned through the numbness of Ton’s incorporeal body. (And how dare that bastard actually continue eating his body while the others were breaking down!) There was a fight brewing and the odds are astronomical bad. Neither he nor Natsuki could really touch anything or be heard. Tetsujo was the most ready to fight but he was emotionally shaken. Saji was still in denial and Ushishimada was in a worse state. And Ton knew exactly how fast Kai’s horrible horrible tube mouth was even if the monster could barely move the rest of its overstuffed body. Then the odds decreased rapidly when it called upon the magic it stole from Natsuki.

Fuck.

That didn't stop Ton for instinctively reaching for his knives. What did stop him was the large ice-cold gloved hand grabbing his wrist. Colors muted and time slowed enough for him to actually be able to track the movement of that whip quick tube mouth as the monster simply bit a chunk out of Ushishimada’s chest. Instantly killing him with Saji following soon after and about as gruesomely. From the corner of his eye a shadow flies out and over the corpses of his friends, pausing briefly and then flying back out of sight.

“Ton!” Natsuki calls out in alarm and he sees a similar shadow wrapped around her.

“Hey!” He shouts turning around quickly, the hand still firmly grasping his wrist. The figure before him causes a shiver to run down his spine. Her face was a skull partially obscured by a gas mask, not unlike the mask of that Aikawa dude (the one who tried to stop the boss who the boss turned into... ), there was even a thick black tube running from her mask that dropped down in loops around her waist like biomechanical intestines. Thick leather armor reminiscent of firefighter gear largely concealing her figure. She towered over him and Ton was not a small man. The black scythe in her other hand felt like a solid threat.

 **“You are dead,”** Death said, sounding tired which given all of the recent killings she probably was, **“Rejoice. These problems are no longer yours. You can rest, forget, and move on. Your friends will meet again in Hell.”**

His friends will meet again in Hell? “But I’m still here now. I could help Tetsujo survive.”

**“Buy doing what? You are one soul against a mountain of angry dead. Even if you did manage to kill the host, and he’d probably thank you for it the poor boy’s been trying to stop himself for years… even if you did kill him your living friends are unlikely to survive the birth of that thing. Either they’ll be eaten very soon or just after the kid gains its own physical form.”**

“Host? That thing?” There were puzzle pieces coming together but so much that he still didn’t know enough. And why… hadn’t they been taken to Hell? Ton had to assume that those shadows that ghosted over Saji and Ushishimada’s bodies were their souls getting harvested. But… “Why did you say my friends will meet up again in Hell?”

 **“You certainly are nosey,”** Death sighed. One of her tubes looped around him and she let go of his wrist. She altered her grip on Natsuki to a singly less restrictive loop around the girl’s waist. **“And I still have so much work left to do.”**

“Ok but--” Ton started only for everything to go dark.

\-------

When Ton wakes he’s warm and comfortable and kinda hungry. The horror of the last day felt almost like a nightmare. He turns over ready to go back to sleep and maybe have a better dream when he sees it and the dam bursts. On his nightstand is a photo of people he’d half-forgotten and a calendar date that he still very clearly remembered. 

Today was the day that his father died. Today was the day his family shattered.

What a cruel place to dump him. 

Forcing himself to leave the lovely warmth of his covers he grabbed the framed photo. It was his family… his first one that is. He’s at the center of the picture sitting in his father’s lap and his father is in turn sitting on the ground and leaning on his pet hog. His mother behind them looking proud. On their left was Ushishimada being picked up by his mom and mighty devils was it weird to see him with hair again. Flanking them their many aunties and uncles and the other kids. Not blood but family all the same.

His eyes burned and tears fell onto the glass of the picture frame. After some hesitation Ton takes the photo and gently folds it before putting it into his pajama pocket. Real or not he wanted to keep it with him this time.

He doesn’t want to get out of bed. His inner child offers up the suggestion that maybe nothing bad will happen if he’s not there to witness it. But Ton knows better than that.

Ton slinks out of bed and is immediately thrown by how different his body is. So small and soft and unmarred by the stresses of homelessness and starvation waiting in his future. He really is just seven years old again.

He sees his childhood home on the day of the end with the eyes of a battle-hardened warrior and not an already grieving child. The entire farm is tense with the quiet before a battle. A siege is what it looks like as he sees from the window Uncle Ookami setting traps on the perimeter. His Auntie Hotaru’s forge putting out tons of Smoke as she pushed herself much harder than usual while Ushishimada raced back and forth from the forge to the field carrying pieces of armor to Auntie Hakuchou fitted the bigger animals with it. 

As Ton passes rooms that would normally be crammed with the sounds of people he notices the emptiness. People’s things are packed up and there’s barely any humans or magicless mages left on the premises. Humans… What was his family’s dealings with humans? The answer didn’t come readily to his mind, only that there’d been humans and others without magic who came and went for reasons he was never really told. Ushishimada had been older, maybe he knew?

He left the children’s house to cross the yard to the main house. Ton noted the absence of the chickens which would normally be crowing at this time or running around begging for treats. The sows and cows were gone too. One of the hunting dogs clad in pointy, scribbled on armor greeted him enthusiastically before being called back over to Auntie Hakuchou’s side. Her door, there was no mistaking the elegantly carved wood with the hand-painted singing animals covering it, was steadily dissolving by the door. Unbidden a chuckle came to him at the mental image of a bunch of farm animals getting dumped in the Hole for their safety. Hmm well, certainly whoever the enemy was they probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between _their_ humans and sorcerers who couldn’t do magic amongst so many like them. He didn’t know how the farm animals fit into things. Maybe their people could sell animals for human money?

The main house (damn his family had some money and he never noticed) was a house in mourning. Ushishimada’s mom was on the couch in the sitting room with his cousin Kokou and her human friend, Akane. Aunt Meushi was putting the finishing touches on some masks for them, a black tiger and red hen respectively. It was as equally clear that she’d been crying recently as it was that the older kids were very much pretending that nothing was wrong. And from the hatchets strapped to the woman’s armor, it was also apparent that she expected fighting to start soon.

They greeted him warmly, if concerningly affectionate. Like they may never see him again… and well... he never did see them again did he?

He heads towards his parents’ room slowly. Something about the hush making him want to tread quietly. And he wants to put this off as much as possible.

At the almost closed door, he overhears a private conversation.

“At least I’ll see the bastard in Hell,” A voice like a walking mountain rumbles. Quietly Ton brushes away the tears that started falling fresh. From the richness of the baritone and the subtle clacking of tusk on tusk, there was no mistaking his father’s voice for anyone else. The man’s breathing sounds labored even from a distance.

A woman’s voice… his mother’s voice responded. Low and thick and sharp like molasses. “That may be what happens, but that’s not remotely fair. And damn the devils for it.”

“You know, you can go to jail for saying such things,” His father half chuckled and half wheezed. “And Hell’s no place for a sweet thing like you.”

She snorted incredulously and playfully swatted his arm, “Really? Flirting at a time like this? What a pig.”

“Wild boar, thank you very much.” He retorted. It was a routine clearly familiar to them. Ton saw through the crack in the door their fingers intertwining. His father’s pale chubby ones slotted into his mother’s dark work-roughened ones reminding him of a little piano.

His mother leaned in conspiratorially and asked in a tone he strained to hear, “Your magic… could you…?”

His father’s magic? To be honest, Ton couldn’t remember what kind of magic his father had at all. Nor his mother’s for that matter.

“Hmmm no,” his father answered after some thought. “That mushroom bastard killed Kokuo. Without a proper anchor… I wouldn’t be able to stay myself. I’d only end up causing more harm than good.” He sighed wistfully, “Besides, with this kind of magic… it’s best to go when your time’s up.”

“I suppose that’s true.”

“Tell me again… what happens to humans when you die?”

You? Was his mother…?

“Well, now, unlike you sorcerers none of us have the power to revive the dead. So no one really knows for certain. Lots of folks think that if you are an evil person you go to a hell for a while and if you are a good you get to be reborn as something or someone else. There’s also the heavens, where good people go for like, eternal rewards or some boring shit like that. Some of the monks think that if you’re like, holy enough you stop being reborn and simply cease to be? Spiritually? Or something?”

“Oh?”

“I don’t really get the appeal. Of just ceasing. Why not just live different lives for all of eternity?”

“That does sound nice. Far more lenient than our fate.”

“Course there’s always stuff like ghosts and limbo and all that.”

“Limbo?”

“It's a kinda state where the dead enter sometimes before they move on. A nowhere place where ghosts are born. Angry souls that refuse to rest or simply folks that have some business to finish before they do. No one ever really makes happy stories about it. ...I wish I could meet you again in my next life.” 

His father hummed, “That would be lovely.”

Before he could catch himself Ton sniffled.

“Hey, piglet! Come give yer daddy a hug!” His father boomed like his lungs weren’t failing him. Ton pushed open the door to see his mother helping to prop up his father so that the big man’s back was against the headboard. Right, somehow his mind impressed the date of his father’s death but the method had slipped into the sands of time. There was something extremely unnerving seeing a good chunk of the man’s chest just… crumbling. Large portions of it were bandaged as best as possible but the web of cracks extended past the edges, the affected skin dry, irritated, and flakey. Bits fell off when his father breathed just a bit too deeply, creating what Ton could imagine was just the worst bed experience possible. Crumbs in your sheets but grosser. In the places where the magic had completely eaten through the skin, he could see shiny white pockets of fat crisscrossed with fungal hyphae. There is no shortage to the horror that settles into Ton’s gut that his father would have likely died days ago if he were a leaner man.

It also doesn’t escape him that his mother is dressed for war. Combat boots and sections of scale armor over her hunting clothes. The vital bits, of course, the major organs of the torso and places with large arteries like the neck, upper arms, and thighs. Her crossbow, and a full quiver of arrows, her hunting knife (a beautiful knife he needed to commission someone to make him a copy at some point because it was fucking watered steel!), and a pair of pistols… emergency weapons. 

Ton had nothing against guns, he was a damn good shot himself but he’d hunted with his mother. Guns were noisy and dulled your ability to hear after using them. And the smell of gunsmoke dulls the nose (not that you could actually smell anything but the boss when fighting at his side). His mother was fond of saying that any of your senses could provide you with life-saving information so it was best to avoid impairing them unless you had no other choice. 

And it looked like his mother was expecting the worst.

At her hip was her mask. It looked like she’d given the black leather a fresh shine. The snarling panther maw was a thing of beauty, something his father thought as well as his tattoo of it still shone proudly on the man’s remaining properly intact shoulder. Mask...human. Huh. Actually, if his mother was human then so was his cousin Kokou. Ton supposed having masks in this world was useful to humans, they’d be mistaken for mages and less likely to be attacked or sold. But why wear it to a fight? It wasn’t a helmet like Tetsujo’s mask, it didn’t offer up much protection.

His mother kissed him softly on the forehead and the gleam of her necklace caught his eye. Speaking of things that weren’t very helpful on the battlefield… the necklace was more like thick twine dyed black with colorful beads, fine enough. But then there was the claw hanging from it that had to be about as long as a uni-bear claw and curved like a cat’s. Ton didn’t know if it was real, it kinda looked like it was made of crystal, but it was certainly sharp. Sometimes Ton’s brain liked to throw the image of her accidentally getting stabbed or cut by that claw because sometimes brains are assholes like that. It never did as far as he could recall, and according to her, it was a good luck charm. She’d once told him that it saved her life.

A frown crosses his face. Ton had no idea if his mother survived this day or not.

His father gave him an affectionate side hug that looked like it clearly caused him pain but the man was grinning through it. 

“Dad… you’re dying aren’t you?” Ton hates how the voice that comes out of his mouth sounds like a child. He hates that he feels like a child. Hates that he’s in the body of a child who can’t join the coming fight or steal some healing smoke to save anyone. He hates that they look at him like he’s a child even if he technically is at the moment. 

He hates what’s coming next the most.

One thing he is thankful for is that his parents never lied to him. That he’d forgotten that his mother was human or what they’d done for a living was on him not asking that many questions. His parents didn’t sugarcoat it when they confirmed that yes his father was dying. That everyone dies eventually. That his mother may die fighting the bastards who hexed his father. That some of his aunts and uncles may face the same fate.

Of course, Ton knows that death isn’t anything to fear so long as you’ve got a cause worth dying for.

 **“Do you want to die?”** Asked Death as she stood on the other side of his parent’s bed waiting for his father to kick the bucket. Instead of the terrifying gas-masked, firefighter skeleton soldier was a tall black-skinned woman. Not Black as in brown like his mother but black as in a crisp winter night during a blackout. Her clothing was also black but more like the black of black jeans washed at the wrong temperature and looked rather cozy. 

Natsuki was not with her.

 **“Your Partner is safe.”** Death said like she heard his thoughts. **“This is not a place for her. I ask again, do you want to die?”**

Did he? He looked at his parents and his younger self frozen in time. Ton hadn’t died gloriously in an ultimately futile battle against powerful sorcerers while trying to change the world or even protecting something important to him. (And suddenly he feels like he failed his parents at that thought.) He’d been killed like an annoyance by someone he admired. Betrayed. And gotten his comrades killed by the grief that his death caused.

...and Tetsujo was still alive the last he’d seen. It was still up in the air if Dokuga was still kicking or if the bo--if Kai’d eaten him as well. If Tetsujo was still alive he’d certainly try to save Ushishimada and Saji’s heads to revive them. Ton knew for a fact that his own corpse was unsalvageable, the massive chunk taken out of his temple certainly contained his devil tumor and without it… he didn’t really know how one would go about reviving without it. And…

So long as some of his loved ones were still alive… isn’t that something worth staying around for?

“I don’t want to die,” Ton said and knew for certain. As sure as the worry slithering in his gut. “If I can help my comrades in any way that’s what I want to do.”

**“So that is your choice?”**

“Yes.”

Reality blacked out again.

\-----

The next time he wakes he’s in agony. Like his flesh has been shredded and burned and his bones broken. Without opening his eyes he took quick stock of his body. He moves muscle groups in sequence: fingers and toes, hands and feet, the limbs, core, back, chest, neck, face. Everything seemed to be in order so where was that pain coming from?

He opened his eyes to see a carcass. 

A corpse was probably the more proper term except it had been torn into like a dead deer left by a pack of wolves. To his mind, Ton felt like it should be called a carcass. It was still identifiable as him, other than the hole in his temple and the slash on one side that destroyed his ear, his face and shoulders had been relatively untouched. His exposed ribcage was still attached to those shoulders by the back muscles. Every other piece of him looked like it had been crudely crushed, squeezed through a tube, and then dipped in acid and chemically cooked. And like? Yeah, yeah that was about right.

Ton sat up and his attention was drawn to his surroundings. He was in the mouth of a really fucking massive cave. Close enough to the entrance to still be able to see what was around him but deep enough that he couldn’t make out anything outside of the cave other than the fact that it was daytime. The stone underneath his hands was smooth and damp and he could see little puddles where the floor dipped. Stalactites and stalagmites seemed to frame a rather wide pathway. Getting up and taking a closer look at a stalagmite the thing looked less like a solid rock but more like some black bone partially encased by clear crystal. Investigating, he found that parts of the floor also seemed to be bone where the stone ended.

“Where am I?” He asked the empty air. This was no memory from his past. He’d never got to live anywhere with a nearby cave system to explore.

 **“The middle of Nowhere,”** Death said, appearing out of the shadows in a set of grey work overalls pushing a wheelbarrow. **“Which is also a place where reality is rather.. worn.”**

She handed him a shovel. **“Frankly I don’t understand the appeal of clinging to something so ephemeral and fleeting as life. But then I can’t say I’ve ever experienced it either.”**

Ton gripped the shovel tightly even though his face betrayed none of the anger he felt towards the deity for making him relive the memory of his parents’ end. The white painted skull on her tar-black face let him read her expression some, she seemed vaguely amused by the situation. He raised an eyebrow at her.

 **“You refuse to give up the ghost,”** Death said as she leaned nonchalantly against the wheelbarrow. **“And you want to help your comrades. We’re going to go ask a favor from a higher power. So it's best to bring a sacrifice for this sort of thing.”**

Oh. Huh. Well then. He took the shovel to his carcass and started loading it into the wheelbarrow. 

“So what do you gain from this?”

**“Gain? Not much other than you not being my problem until you die again.”**

At his furrowed brow she continued, **“News flash piglet, everyone dies eventually. So why should I care when I get you? But next time your spirit type magic having ass might be at peace and won’t make shit difficult for me.”**

“And Natsuki?”

**“You went and bound her to you, soul to soul. She’s getting dragged into whatever the result. Now, let's get moving, it’s gonna be a heck of a trek.”**

Death led the way down the tunnel as he pushed the wheelbarrow.

Ton quickly realized that she’d not been kidding when she said they were in for a long haul. Less than an hour into their walk the light from outside the cave vanished. There was something smothering about cave darkness that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Death does not falter in the blackness, Ton had a feeling that she was of the same nature to it. She guided the wheelbarrow with a steady and passive hand, correcting its course when he strayed but never actually putting in the work to pull it.

**“And why should I? It’s your bargain, your sacrifice, and your refusal to die?”**

Right, she could read his thoughts.

The path was a winding one. Bumpy, uneven, and the jagged stalagmites easily cut him when he accidentally brushed them. And all along where puddles in the potholes and at points pools deep enough that they came up to his waist. His socks and underwear were disgustingly soggy and it made his skin crawl to feel slithering things slide against him when his skin was underwater. And steadily they were going downhill deeper and deeper into the earth.

Ton was absolutely certain that the wheelbarrow was getting heavier as they walked. Like someone added two or three more hims in there. That or just fucking muscle fatigue from pushing a fucking wheelbarrow for what had to be several kilometers. Both were possible.

Either overwork had finally gotten to him at least a day or two in of a nonstop march or there was light at the end of the tunnel. The building heat pointed to the latter scenario. As their surroundings lightened he could see again. The jagged tooth-like stalactites and stalagmites from the mouth of the cave had given way to clear crystal columns and a roof and walls that gave off the impression of a gigantic rib cage and vertebrae where they hadn’t been swallowed up by stone and crystal growth. In the pools of water, he could see thick leeches and worms nearly as big as his arms slithering about blindly. Centipedes skittered in and out of cracks in the stone. And his suspicions of there being more in the wheelbarrow were correct, masses of writhing eels (? eels in a cave?) and threadlike worms were having a great time drilling into his corpse. Gross.

Death once again had taken a different form. Though this time she’d shed the pretenses of her humanoid shapes to be a figure made of bone and impenetrable shadows vaguely arranged in the shape of a carrion bird. The battery of at least seven twiggy legs made her movement look less like walking and more like a ghostly glide. 

The heat kept climbing, making Ton far more miserable than the strain in his muscles from all the work. He wasn’t built for heat. High temperatures made him sweat like a hog and the humidity in the cave didn’t help at all. Without stopping he manages to remove his coat and chuck it into the wheelbarrow and feels a little bit of relief from the feeling that he was being baked alive.

Still, they kept walking.

And things started to get ...weird. The ambient light increased from cracks in the stone outside of the path and he could see other pathways reflected at strange angles through gaps in the stone ribs of the cave walls. On those paths were other Deaths in other shapes from hollow white dogs to butterflies made of glass shards guiding other people. Some were him but hims that looked slightly off. There was a him he could see in the gaps of the roof being led by a neon pink clown that was darker skinned, taking after his mother more. To the left, at a forty-five-degree angle, there was a him heavily scarred with long hair following a swarm of iridescent flies. At a ninety-degree angle was a masculine woman who looked vaguely familiar calmly walking by herself without a Death. At a thirty-degree angle he saw glimpses of a wounded person with mutated animal features scurrying quickly like their life depended on it.

And that’s not even getting into the fact that water was flowing up and pooling towards the ceiling.

“So...” He started and Death cut him off with a sharp clack of her boney beak.

**“This is a thin place. Reality is worn so much that worlds touch and time is all but meaningless. Granted I don’t personally experience time, that's just what I’ve been told by critters that do.”**

Huh. Interesting.

After an unquantifiable stretch of time felt like it passed they reached the end of the cave. The cavern was filled with an underground lake, both where a lake should be (on the ground) and a mirror copy on the ceiling. At the far end of the chamber was a massive stone structure leaking ghostly light and water that it took Ton a bit to recognize as a lopsided heart.

 **“This is as far as I go,”** Death’s voice was faint like she was fading away. Or leaving more likely. **“Take your sacrifice to the center and present your case to the being who dwells there.”**

“Alright,” Ton says. “Thank you for this.”

He does not expect the god of death to playfully ruffle his hair nor her words. **“Good luck piglet, I’m rooting for you and yours. Not every day I see a sorcerer who actually wants to change shit for the better. See ya when I see ya.”**

With that Death vanished. 

The wheelbarrow had become a raft. With a paddle. Ton pulled the raft into the black water and then climbed on. His carcass stared unblinkingly at him as he paddled out to the middle of the lake. A shiver ran down his spine and he became very aware that he was being watched. That he was being judged. Uncertain of how to start his case he simply began at the very beginning. His life story, his thoughts, his beliefs, his fears, everything simply spilled from his lips without pause or filter. By the end when he simply had nothing left to say and for the first time in a long while Ton felt… empty. Exhausted. Drained. He couldn’t even motivate himself to wipe the tear streaks off his face. 

And for a good long time, nothing happened.

And at the very least that gave Ton time to regain his composure. Almost as if it had been waiting for him to get his shit back together something started stirring under the surface of the water. Black loops of serpent rose like hills and rocked Ton’s raft with waves. Iridescent scales shimmered in the ghostly light of the fractured stone heart. On instinct, he turned just in time to see the head of a massive eel drop from the heart of the lake above. From its gaping needle toothed maw unfurled a tongue made of worms that in a single lick devoured his carcass. The god withdrew its tongue and shut its jaws with a snap that Ton could feel in his ghost-bones. A cluster of purple eyes watched him unblinkingly and Ton was surprised that he felt no fear. He’d already been judged and if it wanted to kill him it would have.

The god closed its eyes and lowered its head to make its jaw level with the surface of the lower lake. Its breath was hot as the steam of a sauna as it opened its mouth again. At the sight of his mom walking out, Ton stood stunned. She looked the same as the last time he saw her, young and beautiful, and dressed for war. She extended a hand to him that held something that resembled a large pearl. His eyes were threatening to cry again as he took the pearl and found it to be squishy like mochi. It had to be strongly scented because he was able to pick up the smell of pure sugar.

The thing wearing the face of his mother spoke, **“I am the King of Worms and the Mother of Monsters. I devour gods and from the ashes of my flames worlds rise renewed. I have decided to grant you three favors.”**

She pointed at the sweet pearl in his hands, **“Eat of my fruit and birth a dragon into your flesh and soul. A gift of power.”**

She pointed to herself, **“Listen to the story of your parents and their place in the world. A gift of knowledge.”**

She spread her arms wide, **“This is the root of the world, from here travel to anywhere and anywhen is possible. A gift of time.”**

“Alright.” He said. Ton was pretty sure he got the gist of what the entity was saying. He popped the fruit in his mouth and was nearly overwhelmed by the sweetness. It was fruity and smooth too like a sweetsop turned up to eleven. He swallowed the thing whole on the off chance that he wasn’t supposed to chew it and it settled into his belly like a gallon of warm milk. His eyelids flickered as he struggled to stay awake but to no avail.

Ton sank into a bed of worms. His vision dimmed as the Dragon began to speak.

**“This is the story of a human...”**

\----

What we learned in this chapter!

  1. Death is quite lenient.
  2. Ton and Natsuki are Partners.
  3. Dragons have many talents.




	2. How I met your...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is the story of a human, the sorcerer she met, and how they connected. (OC heavy chapter. Def plenty of body horror/gore towards the end)

**“This is the story of a human...”**

  
  


_-Location: Kamwa Farm, Nowhere. Sixty-five kilometers from Hole city -_

“Hyodoru, I just want you to know that I think this is a terrible decision,” Tomboko said leaning against the doorframe as she watched her pack her belongings. Tomboko’s disappointment is as palpable as the stress lines she started developing on her face in the past few months.

Hyodoru closed her suitcase with a sharp snap. “It pays well and we need the money.”

“I mean, traps need good bait or they wouldn't catch anything.” Tomboko sighed.

“Even so we still need the money.”

The sisters stared each other down, an immovable force versus an unstoppable object. Hyodoru couldn’t help but grin knowing that if they were teenagers again they’d have already come to blows in such an argument. Simpler times. The tension was only broken by their mother calling Tomboko downstairs to help her in the kitchen.

Hyodoru finishes the little odds and ends left to prepare to go to Hole. She’s got work clothes and nightclothes in her suitcase. Brochures and maps and as much money as she felt safe carrying in her shoulder bag. Her emergency pistol with the extra ammo in the holster. Her hunting knife and its holster. A box of purified charcoal because no, she’s not drinking Hole water without boiling and blessing it. Her favorite Panthera hoodie. And a collapsible plastic umbrella. 

Ready go she slips on her hunting boots. The heavy leather and steel toes give her a sense of solidity more than the knife and gun. Hyodoru knew that Hole was dangerous even if her older sister acted like she didn’t. She could handle a group of muggers or even a rapist with just her knife. No human could compare to a rabid mutant bear bearing down on you. Or the terror of discovering that you are standing right next to a unicorn foal and the mother could see you. But a sorcerer? Magic is a whole game-changer. She would have to just be vigilant and ready to run if she saw one. Run and be lucky. 

Hyodoru moves with Panthera’s grace down the stairs, avoiding the creaky timbers, a habit from getting up extra early to go hunting with her late father. The house is better off without him, calmer and more peaceful. No one misses him at all. The question of will anyone miss her worms itself into her brain. It is because she’s distracted that she manages to sneak up and overhear her mother and sister. 

“She’s going to get killed if she goes to that filthy place by herself,” Tomboko says. Her leg is bouncing like an ornery jackrabbit and she does the dishes. 

Their mother hums thoughtfully, “Hyodoru can handle herself, and it's good for her to try and gain some practical skills outside of killing things. At the rate she’s headed she’d probably turn into one of those wild mountain people all feral in the woods if she doesn’t hang out with more folks. Not that there’s anything wrong with the feral mountain folk, they’ve got some of the best leather I’ve ever laid me eyes on.”

Her sister snorted at that and Hyodoru could picture herself living in the woods rather easily.

“‘Sides,” Their mother said as he loaded food onto plates, “We do need the money. The crops aren’t looking good and it’ll be a good while before Isamu settles proper and his fire kicks in. And since Lute got turned into a weremole we can’t really afford to have you or Beau to stay with her.” 

Hyodoru alerts them to her presence by dropping her bags by the table. “Alright, I’m all packed.”

“And we’ve got breakfast ready.”

If they suspected that she’d been eavesdropping on them they didn’t show it. Breakfast was a might bit heartier than usual, especially given the current state of the farm. Hyodoru didn’t know how to feel about the special occasion bacon from a pig slaughtered at least a year ago. Fresh orange juice even though the last orange harvest was hardly three bushels. Pickled trout caught during that one summer where the drought actually cleared up the streams since there wasn’t any polluted rain from Hole and the water was actually see-through for once. If her sister had made it, Hyodoru would have expected outright guilt-tripping during the prayer but no their mother had. And the elder’s wish was nothing but health, luck, and happiness for her youngest daughter. 

Somehow that made her feel even worse.

Hyodoru washed her own plate after finishing. Gave her mother and big sister hugs. And pet Isamu’s fluffy lavender head and wished the old dog a peaceful transition into dragonhood. Her bags were heavy but not unbearable as she left out the kitchen door for the road. Solid boots and strong legs made the walk to the gate quick but that did not make the crops yellowing from too much rain look any better. Yes, this year would be another terrible harvest.

She makes a detour on the way out, crossing between the potato and squash/corn/pea fields to the shrine at the highest part of their farm. Hyodoru didn’t know how to feel about the new tin roof, mostly because it was completely at odds with the elegantly carved granite pillars supporting it. It’s better than the old thatched roof was but not by much. One day their family would get the money to fix Panthera’s shrine up proper again but for now, they had to make do. Into the tupperware bowl at the feet of the onyx cat statue, she put a handful of roasted peanuts from her snack bag. Standing on her tippy toes she reaches up to pat the nose of the statue that was worn smooth after generations of worship. 

“Ra Panthera,” Hyodoru recites softly, “with grace and luck.”

Waiting for her at the gate was Beau, Tomboko’s boy toy. As he was fairly tall with sleepy eyes, a calm demeanor, and cornfed cowboy looks it made him pretty darn popular in the neighborhood. That he’d somehow fallen for Hyodoru’s sister was both a mystery and a source of relief for the family. And at the moment for her, meant she didn’t have to spend money to catch a cab or get a bus ticket to go to Hole. 

“Ready?” He asked around a sprig of hay between his teeth. From where he was leaning against his rusty beat-up pickup truck he probably saw her at the shrine. He took her suitcase from her and put it in the truck bed. “Heard you been fightin’ with ‘Boko again.”

It wasn't really a question and she could tell by the tilt of his mouth that he thought it was hilarious.

“You know ‘Boko. She’s stubborn.”

“Like a mule. But she means well.”

“I know.”

Once the engine decided to stop acting like it was dying the silence they rode in was comfortable. Beau was not a chatty man and she was not a chatty woman. And it was nice to watch the world fly by the windows, she didn’t normally get the chance to ride in a car. Pretty much all of the farms they passed were in various stages of yellow and wilted. Too much rain with more pollutants than normal. Until they dipped into Hole valley, the Mouth of the Dragon deep in the heart of Nowhere prominently stood silhouetted against the horizon. Which was wild because the actual cave mouth was nowhere near big enough to even approach the size necessary to look like that.

“‘'S a distortion, like the way buildings in Hole look curvy in the pictures. The dragon god in the bottom of the Mouth makes the cave act weird cause it’s so strong.”

“Huh.”

Entering the Hole valley felt like a descent into Hell. Or the abyss. The air got heavy and Hyodoru could have sworn that the sky was suddenly darker. Greyer. The land inside of the valley reminded her of a desert. Long stretches of mostly dirt and rock peppered with sparse hardy weeds and dull wildflowers. Here and there were stands of twisted vegetation likely surrounding pockets of standing water like fucked up oases. The land was far from the dryness of a desert tho, it was wet sticky, and monstrously humid making the barrenness even more unsettling. Hole felt like a place deliberately poisoned. Something cursed and left for dead.

And yet…

In the heart of the valley sat a city like a canker sore. Bloated and slightly pulsing to her sight. Which she hoped was just a hallucination like the way the wood grain of the floors moved when she didn’t get enough sleep. Everything about it was rusty and grey and miserably looking. If not for the number of zeros on the paychecks she was gonna get, Hyodoru would have told Beau to turn the truck around and gun it till the nasty place was just an afterimage in the back of her mind.

In the city proper, her skin started to feel like there was sand on it. The air was filthy. She would have to see if there was a place to get a mask. Beau slowed down considerably on the city roads, making her aware of the differences in driving laws and also giving her a good solid look at the people. Hole was pretty damn crowded for such rancid vibes and part of Hyodoru wondered if most of the inhabitants were simply stuck here for economic reasons. The idea that people would live here of their own choice gave her goosebumps. Not to mention the total freak show that was the populace.

All too soon the ride ended and Beau dropped her off in front of the cheap rental place she booked online. He helped her get her bags from the truck to her new apartment room ruffled her hair, and gave her a whole watermelon from his truck that he’d been saving for the occasion.

“Don’t be a stranger,” He said as he started his ancient truck. “Call us.”

“I will.” She replied. “See ya later cowboy.”

In her room, she unpacked her things, ordered a crappy pizza, and had fresh sweet watermelon for dessert. She read a few chapters from one of the books she’d brought. Then she tucked in early because she needed to be up extra early in case she got lost on her way to work tomorrow.

  
  


\--------

  
  


Hyodoru quickly learned that the apartment she’d gotten was so cheap because it was apparently on the bad side of town. And bad side apparently meant hey those sorcerers that you see in the news maiming and killing people? The ones who can show up out of the blue with no warning? Yeah, they frequent this part of town. But also we don’t do refunds. Headass motherfuckers.

Boots to pavement she walks briskly and avoids eye contact. Her ‘don’t fucking bother me’ vibes are reciprocated as at least half the other people already on the streets at the early hour were doing the same thing. Used to country measurements of blocks, Hyodoru completely overshoots her target and has to spend half an hour with her map to find the dig site. On the way, she discovers a basking spot for huge blubbery albino alligators and makes a note of it on her map because those skins would be lovely. Her final destination turns out to be at best a twenty-minute walk from her apartment going the right way.

The person in charge of the dig is an older woman who at one point was partially turned into a parrot. A bright blue bird head with piercing orange eyes greeted her warmly and a high pitched childlike voice exited from a massive bone-crushing bill, “Alright, so you make number six.”

Two other people show up at the site by the appointed time and everyone is herded into the large tent on the side of the large hole. Inside there was a half dozen more beat up folding chairs than people who actually showed up and a breakfast bagel spread. Also a big ass chart on one of those rolling chalk? cork? boards. Hyodoru really couldn’t see enough of the board under all that paper and she knew that if you really wanted to it wasn’t impossible to put push pins into a chalkboard. The bagels were good and the cream cheese was passable. 

“Good morning! I’m your dig supervisor Sora,” The bird-woman chirped, “Thank you for applying to help with this archeological evaluation. We have approximately three months to collect every scientifically or culturally significant artifact from this dig site before a bakery is built on the space. The objective for today is for everyone to fill out our paperwork and learn how to excavate, preserve, and categorize findings. My assistant Kiki will be handing out packets.”

A short pale-skinned furry woman with a monkey tail started handing out packets to the group. Pretty standard stuff asking about bank accounts and safety security numbers, general workplace safety, standard operating procedures, and a pamphlet on how to identify and avoid sorcerers. Nothing that took all that long to complete.

“Now does anyone have any questions?” Sora squawked.

From a chair on the other side of the room, a voice with a familiar Nowhere drawl asked, “So is there a reason that the locals didn’t hop on these fat paychecks?”

Sora’s feathers flattened and Hyodoru knew enough about birds to know that that question made the woman very uncomfortable. “It was determined to be less expensive to hire outside labor.”

“How so? Wouldn’t having to pay our rooming be rather costly?” Nowhere Drawl woman asked.

“Still less expensive than hiring locally.”

Later after work at a tourist bar that Nowhere Drawl, real name Momo, invited Hyodoru to after discovering that the two of them were from the same county she found out _why_ it was less expensive to hire outsiders for their job. Turns out the day laborer union was currently on strike and asking for triple their usual pay after a particularly nasty incident of a sorcerer turning the entire crew of construction workers into lead statues due to improper security detail and poorly planned evacuation routes. That wasn’t gonna stop anyone from taking the money and the work or anything tho, because everyone at the dig site needed that hard cold cash. But Hyodoru did pour one out for the deceased (hopefully deceased) workers and sent a prayer to Panthera wishing the union luck in getting the payment they wanted.

Three weeks later on the dig site, she found a dragon claw under the opalized remains of a prehistoric human.

It was a pretty big claw, longer than any of her fingers and the curve to it gave Hyodoru the impression of a feline-shaped dragon. It was hot to the touch, not burning but more like the feeling of a fresh hot shower that steamed up the room. Hmmmm. That was actually a very interesting find. If anyone had asked Hyodoru if the holy fire of a dragon has ever graced this forsaken hellhole of a city she would have laughed at them. And the locals very much didn’t believe in dragons whereas almost every community around the outside of Hole valley had at least one dragon shrine. But this meant that there was a dragon in Hole once upon a time and it failed to purify this disgusting place. Which is… worse. Very much mind bendingly worse actually. Yeah, getting shitfaced after work is a high priority today.

She pocketed the claw while no one was looking. It may have been a culturally relevant find but dragon parts were worth thrice their weight in gold. And many more times that if you knew how to use them to make purified ash and holy water. Something she’d been taught how to do. No other dragon parts turned up after another week of digging in the same area. Shame, Hyodoru would have loved to find out if dragon bones preserved as well as their claws and teeth.

  
  


\------

  
  


Life fell into a routine. Get up early, go to the dig, work for four hours, lunch, work for three more hours, dinner, shower, call home, read a book, sleep. On the weekends she got in her exercise. Exploring the urban wilds, modifying her map, and hunting some of the local wildlife. There was a butcher about three blocks from her rental that would happily pay her for alligator, rat, and pigeon meat. It didn’t take long for Hyodoru to figure out the Hole’s postal system to send the preserved hides and feathers back to the farm.

The claw she’d found was now a beautiful necklace. She chalked it up to magic that the sharp point that she knew could cut through stone like hot butter never once pierced her skin. Magic or perhaps the protection of Panthera upon her.

The day she runs into her first sorcerer it is raining. After weeks of no problems other than running into the occasional mutant animal nest or mugger, Hyodoru had let her guard down. Like a fool. Especially under the rainy sky of the Hole when sorcerers are unlikely to tread.

The rain in Hole stinks.

Hole in general smells like the rotten corpses left to float in its open waters mixed with burning coal. But the rain enhances that foul odor while adding something vaguely spicy to the mix like black pepper. Is it the black grains from leftover sorcerer smoke? She was never curious about the gross slimy grainy rain enough to try and investigate. And she damn sure wasn’t gonna go looking for sorcerers to sniff to find out the olfactory qualities of their smoke.

The only reason she was out and about was because she was hunting a kind of fish she’d spotted hopping in the streets the past few times it rained. According to the locals, these fish were hard to catch, delicious, and sell for a lot. Hyodoru could vouch for the delicious part. Damn good fried into nuggets. They looked a lot like mudskippers except cat-sized and a bright banana yellow that was probably a warning but when did poison stop anyone from eating something tasty?

In a reckless single-minded pursuit of street fish under a heavy whiteout downpour, Hyodoru does not notice the sorcerer until she quite literally trips over him. And even then it does not register to her that this person clearly pained and inconpacited under Hole’s rain is a magic user until much much later. All she notices is that there is a person on the ground in a dirty alley who is very clearly wounded with poisoned rain soaking said wounds and in dire need of help. And the second thing she notices is that this person is absolutely massive. Just built like a damn wall. A well-padded wall but a wall nonetheless. Long straw-colored shaggy hair plastered to and obscured the majority of their face, neck, and chest and blended neatly into an equally soaked similarly colored fur pelt that covered their shoulders. Someone clearly had tried to kill this person by turning them into a pincushion. About a half dozen arrows were embedded into their shoulder, arm, and belly. Their breathing was shallow but steady and they didn’t respond to her presence until her umbrella blocked the rain from falling on their head.

“Hey,” Hyodoru said, “I’m gonna call a taxi and get you to a hospital, ok?”

A supervillain level deep rumbling voice responded, “No… hospital...”

“Yeah… the hospital in this city is outrageously expensive.” She acknowledged, “I can patch you up at my place, but I can’t guarantee it’ll look good. And it will hurt, I ain’t got no sedatives.”

“....Accept...able.”

A cheap and shady taxi ride later the mysterious man, named Inoshishi, had regained enough of his strength that she didn’t have to worry about throwing her back out trying to get him up the stairs to her apartment. It still wasn’t easy mind you, but do-able. Sitting her guest in the kitchenette, she got to work. Hyodoru set a pot of water on the stove and dumped a tablespoon of purified ash into it and set the thing to high. Her egg timer is set to fifteen minutes. She fetches her sewing kit and a bunch of towels. 

Hyodoru has seen enough arrow related incidents that she knows that it is a terrible idea to just yank the things out. Carefully she removed his fur cape and the tank top underneath while jostling the arrows as little as possible. 

The egg timer buzzes and she dips needles and knives in the boiling anointed water. It is when she’s throwing the man’s garments into the mini washing machine that she notices the tiny black particles floating up out of the fresh blood staining them. Hyodoru brings up the bloody fur for an experimental sniff. The particles burn the inside of her nose and cause her to wince but she’s able to pick up the scent of coal ash and… pepper over the metallic tang of blood. Her eyes flicker over to the emergency contact flyer taped to the wall where there is both a number for the Hole’s ‘Neighborhood Watch’ and a fat reward for reporting sorcerers. 

She bites her lip.

  
  


\---------

  
  


**“... the sorcerer she met...”**

  
  


Inoshishi’s breathing is steady if shallow. It doesn’t feel like any of the arrows in his chest and gut have pierced anything vital but there’s always the possibility of them going deeper if he expands his ribcage too much. Summoning his door and fleeing to Hole was a sound idea, in theory, his prey could go after him or fend off his darling Kokuo. Not both. Especially given that only one of them had a crossbow and the rest didn’t really have anything that could properly take on an enraged war hog.

Unfortunately, it happened to be raining in the Hole.

Between the rain and blood loss, every ounce of strength left his body and he collapsed against the wall as his door dissolved. His head pounded like someone was massaging his scalp with a jackhammer. Every drop of polluted water in his wounds felt like cold flames searing his flesh. The rain soaking his hair and seeping into his eyes blurred his vision. His lips pulled back in an expression that was half grimace and half grin. 

The pain was intense and glorious. 

Inoshishi can tell immediately that something is blocking the rain from his head by the way that his migraine goes from wondrous roar to dull burn. His eyes still burn so he cannot see the person but her voice is a lovely contralto. He wishes immediately that they’d met in better circumstances because he’d love to hear her scream. 

Speaking while perforated with arrows and exhausted is a chore but he has to refute her suggestion of getting him to a hospital. While he preferred to play with sorcerers he knew enough about the events in Hole from stalking his targets to want to avoid being discovered as a magic user. Inoshishi had no fear of death but if he was going to go out via a human militia it’d be much more fun to fight in full health with his pet by his side. Make his death a wonderful spectacle if that’s what it came to. 

The humaness misinterpreted his refusal of hospital assistance with a lack of funds. Then offers to tend his wounds herself. Her promise of pain only sweetens the deal and he readily accepts. Actually getting into the taxi car (?) is an ordeal and a half. He barely has the energy to stand on his own and the human is at best a third of his size. Inoshishi ends up with his uninjured side draped over her like a shawl while they wobbly stagger towards the vehicle and back him inside the vehicle, uninjured side first.

Some of his strength starts to return to him now that he was out of direct contact with the rain. He tells her his name and she gives him her’s. When the car stops at her apartment building he has recovered enough to walk on his own. There was a bottle of B-rank healing smoke in one of his pant pockets, but he needed to get the arrows out first or the magic might try to incorporate them into his body and that’s not something fun. Useful for body mods but not what he was going for today.

The woman, Hyodoru, gives him a towel to dry his head as she gets ready. He can hear her rummaging for pots and looking around for things. His vision returns to him and he actually gets a decent look at the little human. She’s clearly healthy and well-fed. The woman is dark like his friend Meushi, though her short-cropped hair is in free-standing tight curls and not straight. As she moves he can see muscles ripple on her arms and back, Inoshishi had to assume she does a lot of physical labor. On the exposed parts of her skin, he can see a multitude of healed scars. 

He also sees the exact moment that she realized that he was a sorcerer.

The prolonged look at the bloody clothing she’d removed from him. An interesting experimental sniff of his blood on his boar cape. (Fascinating. He never thought about human and sorcerer blood smelling different.) She doesn’t know he can see her line of sight to one of the flyers on the wall full of phone numbers. But he can sense her considering turning him in and he collects his smoke to his throat in case she goes for the phone. When she instead returns to his side with a hot knife, a needle and thread, and disinfectant he is deeply curious but keeps his questions to himself.

“Alright mister, this is gonna hurt like hell,” She says looking in the approximate area of his eyes given that his bangs still draped in front of them. “Will you need something to bite down on?”

“No...” He replies in a shallow breath. “I’m good... with pain.”

“Alright.”

Inoshishi’s heart flutters when she starts to twirl the arrows to see if any of them were embedded in bone. And he knows with absolute certainty that she’s done this before when she uses her knife to enlarge the wounds to remove the arrows instead of yanking them right out. The pain is lovely as she pours disinfectant into the freshly bleeding wounds and stitches them closed. And it is a wonderful feeling when he can breathe deeply again. Then using gauze she bandages up his arm. He snorts with laughter when she brings out duct tape to secure cotton pads to the wounds on his chest and belly.

And possibly because he’d lost more than a bit of blood in the past few hours he suddenly passed out.

When he woke up he was in a bed covered with blankets. There was a strange feeling in his mouth which he discovered to be cotton balls secured to his tusks with rubber bands. In the air was the faint scent of cooked eggs and sausage. The human had already left for work and left him a note.

_Hey. So I know you’re a sorcerer. Regardless, I’m gonna trust you to not be a dick. Ok? There’s breakfast in the fridge and I’ll drop by around noon with lunch. If you get thirsty I recommend drinking the bottled water by the sink instead of the tap. I wouldn’t recommend going outside until your wounds heal, don’t want someone else noticing and calling the militia. Both our asses would be under fire. I’ll redo your bandages later._

_-Hyodoru_

Using the bottle of healing smoke from his pocket he healed his wounds. Then he removed his bandages and used a pair of scissors to remove the stitches he could see. There was a set on the back of his shoulder that he'd have to get one of his underlings to remove when he got home. The cotton from his tusks also had to go, especially if he was going to eat.

Inoshishi is considerably thirsty given that he did lose a lot of fluid. The bottled water is strangely sweet and warmer than room temperature, though that might be because it was treated with something or brewed recently. There was omurice, sausages, and fruit in the refrigerator and Inoshishi was glad that the human had apparently taken his size into account in with the portion she left for him. The food is ok, not bad but several of his underlings could cook better. There was a strange quality to it just like the water. Something that made his smoke veins tingle. 

He spits smoke to make a door and is entirely thrown off by the **_glitter_** that comes out of his mouth. So much so that he chokes on his smoke and spends what feels like an eternity hacking up a lung. The freakishly sparkly smoke that he did manage to expel fell to the linoleum floor completely inert from his interrupted thought process. Inoshishi closes his eyes and blows smoke again. He opens his eyes to see his door but it is unnervingly covered in a layer of twinkly pieces of glitter. 

Well then. 

He pulls open the heavy iron door and steps into his kitchen at home where Meushi pulls him into a crushing hug before his door closes behind him. His other underlings were present as well and excited to see him even though they are not as brazen as Meushi is to embrace him without permission. On the table, he sees his will and figures out what they were up to.

“Really?” He laughs.

It is Ookami who responds first, “Your blood was all over Kokuo.”

And his sister Hakuchou who finishes the thought, “And we weren’t able to find you when we looked.”

“So what happened?” Meushi asked. There was something amusing in the way that she seemed crossed with him for making them worry about his safety. 

“Wasn’t expecting one of the dudes to have a crossbow. Got shot a bunch. Had Kokuo distracted them and retreated to Hole. Got caught in the rain and rescued by an interesting human with a pretty voice. Recovered from my injuries. Came back.”

“An interesting human?” Hotaru asked. She’d been around the longest, back from before the demise of his parents and he knew how to read her the best. There was a vague note of concern and disgust on her face that reminded him that she disliked his hobbies. That and perhaps the fear that if he was willing to target humans then perhaps a weakling like herself and the rest of the servants might end up in his crosshairs. 

A notion that was preposterous because his minions belonged to him and only a fool breaks his own toys. And besides, they were meek not weak.

“I want to hear her scream. I think it would sound lovely.” He says nodding. “I did not hunt her. She made me a guest in her house, it would be rude of me if I tried.”

Inoshishi smiles at the way Hotaru squirms at his deliberate avoidance of giving her some solace of her fears. It was fun to watch her squirm. And besides, she worked much better when a little frightened and he had use for her at the moment.

“I want to repay this human’s kindness. Hotaru, I need you to make me six pounds of gold coins. With the cute piggies on them!”

“Alright.”

  
  


\------

  
  


**“And how they connected.”**

When she got home for lunch with far more food than she could eat in a week the sorcerer was gone. Dammnit! On her table were six heavy burlap sacks and her own note flipped over with something written on the back:

_Thank you for your help. I have left payment for your hospitality. You should not help sorcerers in the future. I am not a weakling who needs to practice but most who go to Hole are._

_\-- Inoshishi_

After discovering that all the sacks contain gold pieces, real gold pieces goofy looking little cartoon pigs printed on them aside, Hyodoru sits down and has a very long drink of rum. She calls off sick from the rest of her shift and doesn’t much care about whether Sora bought her excuse or not. 

The next day she puts one of the large coins in her pocket. It weighs in her pants pocket like a belly full of stones. She checks throughout the day at the dig to make sure that it's still there and still real. It was. As soon as her shift ends she practically skips to a pawn shop and then a jewelry store to find out what it’s worth.

The price of the single coin gives Hyodoru heart palpitations. Then she calculates how much six sacks of the same coins are worth and needs another long drink. She can be free of this twisted hell called Hole way ahead of schedule. In bed, she writes a letter of resignation to give to her manager. And she calls Beau for him to pick her up around dinner tomorrow so she has time to pack her things. 

Before work, she puts a melon flavored piece of candy in the bowl of the makeshift Panthera shrine in her kitchen. And pats the head of the stuffed cat toy on the altar before praying for a good day and safe trip. At lunch, Hyodoru gives her friend Momo a ziplock bag containing fifteen gold coins and tells her to think nothing of it because Nowhere girls had to look out for one another. For the rest of her shift, she’s practically walking on air even as the assistant manager dumps a heap of last-minute paperwork on her.

Her route home was memorized. It should have only taken twenty minutes to get to her apartment and then she would have gotten away unscathed from this place.

Too bad she had to be a good samaritan upon hearing a child scream in an alley.

  
  


\------

  
  


As interesting as the little human was Inoshishi felt it would be wrong of him to stick around. Such a strange feeling. But he supposed it made sense; he was a hunter and desensitizing an animal to predators could seal its doom. And kindness was not an abundant resource in either of their worlds, so getting someone like that killed would be an awful thing. Even if he wanted to hear that lovely voice scream.

To lift his spirits he decides to go on another hunting trip. 

And nothing feels more appropriate than hunting some human traffickers. Something that doesn’t require too much thinking and always ends in a satisfying amount of wholesale slaughter.

Whatever that was in the human’s water clears from his system quickly and his smoke is once again its normal oil slick black. Which is a delight because when he uses it to wear the body of a vulture he briefly imagines how conspicuous a black bird covered in glitter would be. Flying physically as opposed to using a broom or magic carpet is an entirely different animal. There is no effort in using magic to fly. To use wings? To swim through the air with nothing but muscle power and elegantly designed anatomy? Now that is impressive. 

From a bird’s eye view, it is easy to find smoke trails and follow the movements of sorcerers on the ground. He sees farmers tending their fields and animals. He sees other hunters chasing down wayward children and even killing some. He sees people following well-trodden paths and gathering the fruits and nuts of the forest. None of that is his concern.

A scent of corpses and rain wafted through the air to the east. Ah! Now that’s it! He banks out of his lazy soaring to circle towards the smell. The vulture does not know what rain is, being born into a world where it never occurs, but it knows the smell of corpses means a meal. Soon enough he comes across a clearing containing many rows of metal cages and sorcerers. One of said magic users was on the ground in a stretcher and screaming his lungs out. 

As Inoshishi approached he was hit by the scent of humans, an unearthly iron and salt, as well as stale urine and feces from uncleaned cages. And strangely the smell of burning flesh. He makes the vulture land in a nearby tree in spite of its eagerness to strip flesh from the dying sorcerer. He will make sure to feed it before the day ends if nothing else than payment for using its body and the lovely acrid taste of the blood of his own kind. The sharp eyes of the carrion bird can see the purple-white flames pouring from the man’s eyes, ears, mouth, and the stab wound on his shoulder. The sorcerer writhed in what Inoshishi could only call rapturous agony as he cooked alive. Though, the dying human trafficker probably wouldn’t call it ‘rapturous’.

Inoshishi pulled his spirit out of the bird and approached the group of men. They could not hear or see him. And in his experience thus far most sorcerers could not feel the touch of a spirit until it was far too late to do anything about it. His victim was apparently a friend of the dying man and had just come back with him from a hunt where they’d caught two human children and one adult female. A pang of possessiveness ran through his soul as he accessed the memories, they’d caught **_his human_**. His lovely little human who had more sympathy than sense in her body as it seemed. His human who had apparently _set this mage on fire internally by stabbing him_. To the senses of this sorcerer body, the flame smelled slightly sweet and as he squeezed the man’s hand it crumpled into white ash and glitter. Oh? That was just fascinating! Could some humans actually do magic?

The seat of consciousness is the little devil in the brain. The one thing he can’t control when he takes a person’s body. But… the little devil can’t really do shit about another consciousness invading the rest of the brain other than panic and send out stress signals. Things that Inoshishi learned to suppress rather well. The little devil in this body wanted to tell the rest of his companions that that human woman had done this and that they should kill her before she kills any more of them. 

The words he let come out his stolen mouth are, “Damn, those Hole wasps are crazy!”

“A fucking wasp did that?!” A small man in a cod mask who was apparently called Kenta asked, quite alarmed.

“Yeah,” Inoshishi said in perfect mimicry of how his host would. “Didn’t think anything of this big weird metal-looking ball when we walked past it. Lots of metal weird shit in Hole ya know? But one of the kids managed to hit it with a rock and a bunch of the stinging bastards came out. I was able to torch most of ‘em but one managed to land a good sting on Jotaro. But he seemed ok until like the screaming started.”  
  
“Shit, we may have to put off getting some more humans from that area for a while.” Their leader sighed. “I’ll call Kenta’s family so they can set up funeral arrangements. Keep an eye on the merchandise and check the new batch of humans for any stings. Bad enough we lose a good man, I don’t want to lose decent merchandise at the same time.”

His human is better than fine when he checks up on her. Excellent even. In a cage sure but still armed and ready and painted with the blood of her enemies. The smile plastered across his stolen face was one hundred percent all him. At some point the human children she’d been protecting had gotten separated from her, those his victim’s comrades were checking on. 

In a low voice, he says, “I thought I told you to keep away from sorcerers, Miss Hyodoru.”  
  
“Inoshishi?” She whispered back with a raised brow. She didn’t lower her weapons one inch. “You look different. Transformation?”   
  
“Possession.”

“Like a boo hag?”  
  
“...I ...have no idea what that is. My magic allows me to steal the bodies of others. And since I’m here, wanna kill some assholes with me?”

  
  


\-------

The ensuing carnage was invigorating. A better workout than wrestling sewer gators in Hole. As soon as the door to her cage had been opened Hyodoru danced across the battlefield as a flash of watered steel and obsidian dragon claw. With her knife, she sliced off fingers and hands as Inoshishi suggested, and with the claw, she stung like a wasp. The latent dragon fire in the claw reacted to her will and filled the bodies of her enemies like poison. They died in agony. They were kidnappers and slavers, they deserved it. If this was what the average sorcerer was capable of fightwise she’d wasted a lot of time worrying about them.

Inoshishi provided long-range support with fire magic and a mad cackle. Between the two of them, they clean up the trash pretty well. 

Hyodoru has some confusion when Inoshishi asks her to kill the body he’s wearing. And even more to his enthusiastic answer to her question of if it would hurt him. Great, apparently she’d made acquaintances with a body-snatching sadomasochist. That’s not alarming in any way. At all. 

Still, she killed the bastard as asked.

Inoshishi would return with his real body as she understood it. But that didn’t mean she had to sit on her hands and do nothing. Hyodoru salvaged keys from charred corpses and started opening cages. Men, women, neither and in between, and children. The sorcerers hadn’t been picky about who they took or the conditions they kept them in. It made her blood boil to see how thin and dirty some of them were.

Out of nowhere a door appeared. It was a solid thing all heavy iron and ornate. Engraved and painted on the surface was a magnificent boar leaking smoke from its eyes while being speared through the head and chest with well… a spear. A fancy one with a proper crossguard you need for boar hunting to keep the angry pig from just racing down the spear and goring you. Not that she personally hunted boars with spears, that’s what arrows and tree camps were for. 

It’s Inoshishi’s turn to look confused. “You let them out?”

“...of course?” She says. “It would be wrong to leave them like that. Were you just going to leave them?”

“Yes? What interest would I have in humans?”

“You realize that they’d starve to death otherwise right?”

“I don’t see how that’s my problem tho?”

“Ok. You are a horrible person.”  
  
“And?”

\--------

There is enough space on his property between the guest houses and the barn to house all the humans freed by Hyodoru and then some. And he is not lacking in the funds to provide for all of them neither. He does not understand her drive to help others. Even his underlings would mostly have only cared about saving their own skin and that of their friends if they were in the same situation. But Inoshishi supposes that that is merely one of the many differences between their two species.

The humans who want to return to Hole can start going home tomorrow. Between himself, Hotaru, Hakuchou they should be able to open doors in enough places to get everyone where they want to go. As it was, the humans were free to use his bathrooms and kitchen so long as they didn’t get hostile. Explicitly that if they got hostile he would take it as fair game to turn their spines into belts. And to their credit, they had enough sense to actually be grateful about being rescued and not starting shit or properly afraid of aggravating a bunch of sorcerers. Even if his servants were not really the causing harm to others without being severely provoked types, it was common sense to not provoke things higher up on the food chain.

Because he was curious Inoshishi decided to strike up a conversation with Hyodoru at dinner. An interesting one even if he didn’t understand quite a bit of her position on compassion and helping others but she was smart, he liked her and her pretty voice, and Meushi seemed to get along with her. Hyodoru seemed to be quickly figuring out what kind of person he was as they talked. And there was quite an edge there in her dark eyes. Something vengeful and predatory that made it feel like there were moths in his stomach.

A look that only grows as the weeks pass because Hyodoru insists that they have to be careful and actually return people to where they belong. Without getting them put into the crosshairs of the local militia. Because what is the point of saving people if you turn around and get them killed? 

Also with some funds. 

A stipulation that she wins after betting and beating him in a sparring match. Something he agrees to before losing because he is confident in his skills and perhaps he may have underestimated the power of an unarmed human, especially comparing their sizes. It is not a mistake he makes again when she challenges him a second time trying to secure a place for the orphaned children to live. He wins that round, managing to pin her under his weight with the points of his claws at her neck. But loses when Meuchi takes him on with the same bet by suplexing him (why is she so devils damned strong?). The two women had apparently been conspiring together behind his back.

Little by little he notices that the humaness has been stealing the loyalty of the rest of his household away from him. He sees Hyodoru and Hakuchou instruct humans with no homes to return to on how to care for the animals and work the land. Ookami often went hunting with her bringing back near three times the game he was usually able to capture and beaming like a schoolboy with a crush. While spying in the bodies of birds he caught her and Hotaru drawing up plans for restructuring the guest houses and laughing. He almost never caught Hotaru laughing. Not since that day he skinned his parents. 

When Hyodoru is the last human remaining with a home to return to, she proposes a deal.

  
  


\-------

Bringing a sorcerer back to Hole is incredibly risky. Bringing three of them to Hole is worse but necessary for her plan. Magic users can only make doors to places where the veil between worlds is naturally thin or to places they’ve been before. Thankfully, cars existed in the magic world and Hyodoru didn’t have to try and wrangle three sorcerers around Hole to get bus tickets and hope that none of them actually talk to anyone on the way to their destination. Because good Panthera if any of those three opened their mouths the neighborhood watch would show up so fast they’d all die of whiplash before the militia could kill them. 

After taking a few walks around the car to make some mental measurements of its size Inoshishi summoned a version of his door large enough for the vehicle to fit through. Which looked incredibly silly if Hyodoru was being honest. Because it looked like a really bad edit someone made on Paint. Like… somehow it felt like she was seeing jpeg artifacts on a physical object. And that made her brain hurt. The second-hand four-door purchased with niks from a very shady dealership roared to life and gunned it through the fucked up doorway. 

Hyodoru would never get over just how abrupt it felt to go from the beautiful farm and forest of Inoshishi’s home to the oppressive bleakness of Hole. The way the air went from crisp and clean to choking smog and the sky changed from a beautiful robin’s egg blue to the grey of the city, really hammered in that these were two different worlds. Her ears popped from the sudden air pressure difference as the car stopped somewhere in the barren fields at the edge of the city. There were other humans in the distance that she could see sensibly scrabbling for cover at seeing a damn car pop out of a wizard door.

Hotaru followed her directions rather well, though she did have to remind her to remember to slow down and follow the speed limit whilst navigating through the city. As soon as they leave the city limits in the right direction Hyodoru gives a huge sigh of relief as the car hits the freakish open humid desert that surrounds the city. It takes a few hours for them to crest the edge of the valley and finally become free from the shadow of that canker sore on the world. 

The surprise on the faces of her mage comrades as they experience the human world outside of Hole for the first time is adorable. Like watching someone encounter an alien world for the first time, and in some ways it was. While Nowhere was not anywhere near as beautiful as the magic world, it was a paradise next to the hell pit of Hole. The mood in the car lightened and conversation increased. As they got closer to her home Hyodoru pointed out various landmarks like the giant metal chicken on Ranama’s family farm and the Devil’s tree near Beau’s old place.

Finally! She could see her family’s Panthera shrine shine on the hilltop with its tacky tin roof.

As soon as the vehicle was put in park, Hyodoru all but sprinted the last leg of the journey home. The little pink dog on the porch perked up at the sound of her voice and by the dragons did it feel great to see her mom’s old dog again. Her steps falter a bit as Isamu raises onto his back legs and flashes an incredibly human smile with gigantic yellowed human incisors filling the whole of his mouth. Huh. Well. Good to see that the dog had finally settled as a dragon. Isamu greeted her with gibberish that sounded like an approximation of human speech filtered through a dog’s mind and a cute little “Yay!” as she pets his head. He then shivered by her legs at the approach of the wizards who probably smelled pretty strange and scary.

“Is that what dogs look like in this world? It looks weird as hell.” She heard Hakuchou whisper.

The door opened and her mother and sister stepped out onto the porch and Isamu promptly hid behind them. Past them, she spied a surprised Beau peeling potatoes at the table. Tomboko’s expression was an interesting cross between relief and anger.

“Dammit, Hyodoru we thought you were dead!” Tomboko all but shouted and from the streaks of grey in her Bantu knots, she really meant that. And now Hyodoru kinda felt bad for not getting back in touch sooner. She didn’t expect her older sister to hug her out of the blue and oh! Interesting. The loose-fitting gown the older woman was wearing hid it very well but Tomboko was definitely pregnant.

“No, sorry. I got kidnapped by sorcerers for a while and then made friends with some. I should have called.” Hyodoru apologized. Suddenly a heavy clawed hand landed on her shoulder and could feel Inoshishi’s presence at her side.

“Please do not be angry with her,” The wizard rumbled politely. And for the first time in a while, Hyodoru remembered that the man was actually pretty damn intimidating with his size and very very large sharp teeth. “Hyodoru was busy rescuing other humans spirited away by nastier specimens of my kind. We only just finished getting the last ones back home.”

“Well dearies,” Her mother said warmly. “Why don’t you come in and tell us all about it over a cup a tea?”

\-------

Time passes like water flowing through cupped hands. 

Inoshishi finds himself uncled twice and somehow turned into the figurehead of a freedom movement. His estate expanded and modified to house a mixed commune of mages and humans and half of an orphanage. One where the kids aren’t tortured or for sale! Imagine that. He and his original minions, his lieutenants now, opened so many doors to the human world--not Hole but the actual world outside of that polluted valley, that it was feeling more and more like it would be a good investment to get a permanent door built. If anyone actually knew how to do that… 

The humans pull their weight far better than he expected them to. In terms of skill and labor it turned out there really was no difference between a weak mage and a human. True though humans were more fragile they got along better. His home and Hyodoru’s family farm became a cultural melting pot or very odd social experiment depending on how you wanted to look at it. It was something to be proud of either way.

Hyodoru becomes one of his closest friends, a valuable hunting companion, and then his treasured Partner. He finally, finally! gets to hear his lovely little human scream her lungs out. In pleasure rather than fear but that’s ok by him because that way he gets to hear it again and again. Before he knows she becomes the mother of his delightful son. He gains a sister-in-law, as the humans say it, who hates his guts which he loves so much. It's delightful to hear someone call him a monster with their whole chest. Hyodoru’s mother Tatsuki is equally interesting for other reasons. For a person with such a gentle temperament, he was quite shocked to learn that she killed her Partner to increase the lifespan of her pet. He couldn’t imagine doing the same. As much as he loved his pet piggy Kokuo, Hyodoru’s companionship meant so much more. Inoshishi has to assume that the man had been a terrible partner.

His heart soars to see his son Ton become best friends with Meushi’s son Ushishimada. Half because of the opportunity for puns. His child in general brings him joy that he hardly experienced outside of fights to the death or adding new things to his collection of preserved sorcerer parts or time with Hyodoru. The kid takes after him in build and hair color and even has little baby tusks. But his skin’s deeper brown, more like his mother’s than his father’s. The boy’s hair is a midpoint between her tight curls and his shaggy fur-like locks. And Ton’s kind little green eyes and interesting compromise between Hyodoru’s brown and Inoshishi’s grey. The other compromises between their biologies are much... stranger. Fun Fact! Did you know that humans aren’t born with teeth? That they grow more than one set that they are supposed to shed as they grow up? Weirdass alien motherfuckers. At six years old Ton’s “baby teeth” did not fall out but were pushed aside as his “adult teeth” started coming in and that was just... bizarre to look at. 

As his family grows some of the humans and mages actually do find his rambling discussions on wizard biology interesting. This gives Inoshishi the motivation to write a book on the sorcerer mind and body titled: You Are Meat. And years later after consensual experiments on humans, he writes another titled: Comparative Anatomy of Sorcerers and Aliens.

Inoshishi is never quite tamed by all of these new relationships. His wonderful Partner was clever enough to use him, to figure out what he liked in prey and point him in the most useful direction for the team. Team. How interesting it was to see his people fight by his side, for them to find combat applications for what little magic they had access to. Ookami creatively using partial mammal transformations on himself due to his inability to properly fully transform things. Hakuchou riding one of the steers into battle while enchanted by her magic to follow her orders or using her D type summoned familiar to strike at precise moments with simple brief commands. Hotaru forges weapons and armor with her minor temperature control magic. A few humans who he can’t quite remember the names of yet taking up arms and joining the fray, often under helpful enhancements from Ookami.

Inoshishi had so much fun that when the devil who made his boar mask offered him a once in a lifetime chance at devilhood he refused. As politely as possible of course. And if it were any other devil than Red, his soul would have been dragged to Hell on the spot for calling devilhood the most boring thing he could think of. Red wished him well in his endeavors and he never saw the devil again in life.

And there was much work to do.

They ravaged slave markets. Slaughtered the rich and powerful. Redistributed some wealth even. Of course, they gained enemies. Fearful business moguls, vengeful loved ones of their victims, weirdos who thought human/sorcerer alliances were straight-up unholy, fellow murderous jackasses looking for a thrill… all aiming for his neck. And every time his people emerged victorious even if they only got by sometimes by the skin of their teeth.

It was a man named En who finally managed to kill Inoshishi and break the wonderful fragile thing he and his Partner made.

En. _Smoke_ … if nothing else that was a perfect example of the creativity of devils. Inoshishi’s parents at least named him after a relative who was named after a devil. His love of hogs was entirely incidental. En was supposedly a living sorcerer who got mistakenly thrown into Hell and managed to survive. A man with a serious hateboner for the smoke extraction industry, who like him also collected a family of followers. An up and coming businessman and already a formidable power in society. The favored pet of a natural-born devil. Obsessed with mushrooms.

Inoshishi couldn’t really bring himself to find the man interesting.

He’d certainly studied him, if only because the man’s idea to create a permanent door to Hole to reduce sorcerer predations on their own kind made him an enemy in Hyodoru’s eyes. She wanted to destroy En’s project to protect her people, a species loyalty that Inoshishi didn’t pretend to have. He didn’t have any fucks to give for people he didn’t know. But it was something that his Partner and this En had in common. 

It was easiest to use his magic to enter En’s body when the man was sleeping. Only spirit type sorcerers knew how to tell the difference between sleep paralysis or bad dreams and possession. Inoshishi memorized names and plans and magic types of importance. Helped Hyodoru assault operations. A pair of wizards in En’s family piqued his sadistic interests and he played with them until they broke and took their skins home for his collection.

And that was apparently what got him killed.

Though, Inoshishi had to agree that it was fair. If someone else broke his own toys he’d mercilessly hunt them down and tear them apart. Or eat them to death, depending on who it was they’d hurt.

He’d been in the middle of a hunt, the kind where he simply slaughtered instead of toyed with people for weeks, when a delicious smelling copy of himself walked out of the woods. Smelled like ham and pineapple with the good sugar maple sauce. The copy was soon followed by the tiny, red-haired troll doll looking ass En. Who started making some kind of grand speech. For the life of him, Inoshsishi couldn’t recall what the other man said entirely because he was thinking way too hard about if killing a copy of himself might be fun or not. He knew enough about En’s magic to counter the first volley of smoke with his own. They were both mouth breathers and Inoshishi matched the smaller man’s exhale with just the right timing. As En’s absurdly dense smoke collided with his glittery holy water purified smoke the cloud fell to the gore-soaked ground inert and caught on fire.

Something that is understandably rather unexpected and distracting. His darling Kokuo rammed the other man’s side and given the fact that she weighed half a ton and had very sharp tusks this did more than a bit of damage. Either the man’s hip or femur shattered as he is thrown into a tree bleeding from a deep gash in his thigh. Inoshishi knows better than to let up and charges with a shoulder tackle even as he notices that Kokuo seems to be distracted by something else. 

A person-sized mushroom blocks Inoshishi from crushing En and Kokuo squeals loudly in pain. From the corner of his eye, he saw his darling pig’s snout erupt in fungal fruiting bodies. The big man launched himself backwards, putting distance between himself and the other sorcerer. He hadn’t seen the other man expel more smoke so… Ah. Ok. From this angle, he could see that the mushroom had sprouted from the blood oozing from the gash in the man’s leg. So this En’s magic really was that powerful, no wonder he was Chidaruma’s pet. Inoshishi moved sideways out of En’s direct line of fire and away from Kokuo. He whistled for her to attack from her side, even without her tusks she was still massive and her hooves were sharp. This was not a fight that he could afford to savor as much as he wanted to rip the man’s throat out with his teeth.

Inoshishi rushes forward, dodging under a blast of smoke. He pushes off of the ground with his dominant hand to correct his trajectory, his blunt claws tearing the earth as he rises. He winds up his left arm and slashed with all his strength.

And at the last second En slides down.

Instead of a certain killing blow, Inoshishi merely scalps the man. Inoshishi freezes at the blood-curdling scream that Kokuo emits instead of joining the attack. Even blinded by his own blood the other sorcerer spits a blast of smoke that catches him in the side of chest and shoulder. He jumps away closer to the still burning smoke pile. By the light of the purple flames and the moon, Inoshishi can see that one of Kokuo’s hind legs is missing. Like it had been cut clean off except the cut was spreading through her body. Fur vanished from her backside in a wave revealing layers of shiny white fat and pink-red muscles and pulsing blood vessels underneath. These too vanished before his eyes and in turn, revealed bone and gristle and stringy nerves lacing through both. Her hindquarters gone, she started to sink into the ground and the disappearing slithered towards her front. Her front hooves struggled to gain traction as the wall of her belly lost visibility. It wasn’t a wound or her pulsing guts would have spilled to the ground instead of being held in place as they faded from existence. 

Even after the last of her vanished from sight she kept screaming. The sound becomes muffled and then vanishes altogether.

Inoshishi ignores the pain and blossoming toadstools on his chest. He was outnumbered and outgunned. And he had no idea where his other opponent was. En had recovered slightly, standing on his good leg and braced his wounded side against the tree. Inoshishi had no patience to listen to what the other sorcerer was saying as he made his next move. He gathered as much smoke in his throat as he could muster and walked backward into the fire.

The glittery smokescreen he expelled was even more effective in the middle of a bonfire at night at blinding his enemies. Bringing up the dredges of his smoke stores and giving himself a chemical burn in the back of his throat, he summons his door and makes his escape.

Some two hundred kilometers away on the shores of Lake Belial, Inoshishi allows the surf to soothe his burns. The holy fire burned off the fruiting bodies of the fungus but he could still feel the itchy spread of the hyphe eating his skin. A few hours later his heart feels like it's breaking in two when he senses Kokuo’s death. In his mind’s eye, he sees her last sights: suffocating darkness and then the searing flames of Hell. It was worse than just losing a pet he’d raised as a child, Kokuo was also his anchor. The thing that helped keep his soul intact as he used his magic, without her he couldn’t take bodies unless he wanted to risk his soul becoming an amalgamation of spirits. 

And no thank you. 

Inoshishi would never forget the only other spirit type magic user stronger than a D rank he’d ever met begging to be killed. Unable to return to her body which sat limp like a puppet with its strings cut and rotting alive from being separated for too long. Her spirit that only he could see an amalgamation of people and animals and very very little of her left in it. Her voice only a whisper amongst the cacophony of warbling nonsense and screams. No, he would not go like that.

A foolish gull lands on his chest thinking him dead. Easily he crushes its neck and several of its ribs in a quick grab. He can’t feel his left arm, so he does his best to strip away feathers using his other arm and his mouth. He eats quickly, strong jaws and sharp tusks making short work of the bird’s flesh. He takes care to crush the bones well, no need to risk choking. The bloody feathers soon attract the soft shell crabs native to the lake and he eats his fill of them as well, crunching through their soft little bodies by the handful. With his belly full his strength returns and he summons a door to take his sorry ass home.

His people do their best to help him. But he is the only one who could open a door to the place where Hyodoru needed to go to get what she thinks could save his life. And he is too weak to do it. It would take longer than he had left for one of his underlings to fetch holy water straight from the Mouth of the Dragon and their time was better spent saving as many of the rest of their comrades as possible. 

Deciding to move the children to the human world was a no brainer. They couldn’t help much in battle and life in this world was hell for kids without powerful protectors. The part of him that was a father more than anything else wanted Ton to be the first moved to safety but he also didn’t want to stress his boy out. And Ushishimada and his niece Kokou were sticking around as long as possible to help prep for the coming battle so of course Ton was gonna stay and help out the big kids.

Then his time came all too soon.

Death waited patiently for him as he sat there looking at his own corpse. His face looked peaceful for all the pain and unbearable itching he’d been in. The horse skull mask sitting atop her black robes showed no sign of hurry. He didn’t want to go, not really, but there was nothing he could to help that wouldn’t fuck everything up. Not without Kokuo. 

He offered his hand to Death. And together they descended to Hell.

\------

Mushrooms were sprouting out of her belly. Meushi was... gone, Hyodoru wasn’t sure what happened other than seeing the other woman’s innards and seeing her fade from sight layer by layer. Hotaru managed to escape through Hakuchou’s door before the woman and her battle steer were turned into a pile of mushrooms. The animal control sorceress’s door and summon ceased to exist at the same time as her. She had to believe that Ookami was still alive and got their children to safety, the spell he placed on her to give her a panther’s grace hadn’t worn off. If they ever met again she would bake him an elderberry pie, his magic saved her life thrice this night.

She’d cut this En twice with her watered steel hunting knife. Even lodged an arrow in his shoulder. But he’d gotten her with his smoke when she tried to stab him with the dragon claw. Pain raced up her sternum and tears flowed freely from her eyes. Hyodoru wasn’t able to avenge her Partner or kill this bastard to keep him from making that door and further endangering her kind.

There were truffles bubbling up out of her ribcage. She was so very tired.

Hyodoru closed her eyes. The claw in her hand felt like a lump of hot coal being pulled somewhere. She frowned and didn’t let go. Increasingly annoyed by whoever was trying to rob her before she was properly dead she opened her eyes again to glare at them.

She was not in the familiar forest around Inoshishi’s estate. Hyodoru had only heard of this place described by her mother who’d gone and made a deal with the god that lives under the Earth. A chill ran down her spine and she coughed up a cloud of spores. Was...had she been summoned?

To the best of her ability, she followed the pull of the claw down into the bowels of the world. Scrabbling and stumbling she formulated a plan. She had a bargain to make. And she would give all that she had…

  
  
  
  


_“What was the bargain she made with you?” Ton asked._

_The god wearing his mother’s form smirked,_ **_“That’s between her and her goddess little boy.”_ **

_“Fair enough.”_

\-----

What we learned in this chapter!

  1. Hole isn’t the only place humans live.
  2. Yellow fish are delicious.
  3. Sorcerers and humans can be Partners too!




End file.
